City Corp. board member Phil Wright's statement in reference to unaccounted water during Tuesday's City Corp. meeting was followed by General Manager Craig Noble telling The Courier a plan is in place and steps are being taken to find out what happened to nearly 16 percent of this year's water

"We're actually looking at different types of software, maybe that is intricate to the device that isn't read in an odometer type of setting," Noble said.

"Our crews have been out to all our 3-inch meters, making sure the bypasses are closed and locked," Larry Collins said. "We're fanning out across the streets to make sure somebody or somehow, something hasn't gone around our meters."

Unaccounted water for March totaled 9.27 percent, or the amount that should have been available for sale and what was metered to City Corp. customers.

"It's a very sizable amount of money," Noble said.

"As we try to account for this water, we should look into every available option," Chairman Steve Hooten said. Unaccounted water has climbed to 15.7 percent this year, nearly double the 8 percent unaccounted water in 2005.

Noble said after the meeting the city's water utility continues to analyze every aspect of its operations to figure out where the water is going.

On or off the books?

"The only leverage we have is to file criminal charges," Noble said. "In the past six months, we had our first case in front of Judge (Don) Bourne, and he ruled in favor of City Corp. We are pursuing these to try to identify the areas that water is being stolen."

Noble referred to a recent Russellville police report where the utility reported theft of services. An officer responded to a fire hydrant at Weir Road and Russell Road on April 13. A City Corp. employee was told by a supervisor to stop Jack Woods Construction from taking unmetered water from the hydrant.

The construction company driver returned and told the officer he was told by his supervisors to retrieve water from the hydrant. The report stated City Corp. sent a certified letter to the company asking to stop the practice of using unmetered water out of hydrants. Jack Woods Construction had been keeping its own records of how much water it used in a given time and paying its bill accordingly, the report indicated.

After reading the report, Noble said Tuesday his supervisor of customer service, Frankie Lynch, met with Chip Young of Jack Woods Construction. An arrangement had been worked out where three fire-hydrant meters are being set up at the company's request. Employees of the construction company have been instructed to only retrieve water from these hydrants, Noble said.

"If, in fact, their employees choose not to do that and we catch them again, Chip Young has asked that we make contact with him, because their directive is, they will only be taking water from these meters," Noble said. "We are in the process of addressing that with the contractor, and they have assured us this isn't going to happen again.

"In their defense, Jack Woods Construction has called City Corp. each and every month and told us how much water they've used," Noble said. "However, that has been unmetered."

Noble went on to say the Arkansas Department of Health's backflow prevention program requires the utility to install a protective device between a piece of construction equipment and the water system. It will actually be metered, and City Corp. employees will read those meters every month.

"How much has it been? It's a guestimate what they've been providing," Noble said. "Now, we have a mechanism in place to stop that."